What a way to tee up 2021 for the Lookout Mountain Club. GOLF Magazine’s expert course raters ranked the Lookout Mountain Club Course as one of the best golf courses in Georgia. The Lookout Mountain Club golf course came in at No. 11 of the 15 best courses in the state. According to GOLF Magazine, “We empower and hold accountable a group of 97 well-traveled - and well-connected - golfers/aficionados, each capable of expressing their own sense of design excellence at the highest level.” The magazine adds, “The group is seasoned and experienced - we look for raters who know what’s out there, what’s changing and what’s coming down the pike.” This approach is “one of the main reasons GOLF’s Top 100 Courses rankings are the most esteemed in the game.”
Seth Raynor designed the Lookout Mountain Club golf course in 1925, along with Charles Banks. This course was Raynor’s final accomplishment. While in Florida, opening his Everglades Course in 1926, he suffered a sudden death at only 47 years old. The New York Post’s obituary wrote of Raynor, “Probably no other man has accomplished so much in the building of golf courses throughout the United States as has Seth Raynor … the most famous courses in the country bear the touch of his unusual skill … the golf world will miss its greatest designing genius.” Charles Banks, who had partnered with Raynor in the design and building plans, completed the course in early summer of 1927. In Golfer’s Magazine in 1927, Eric Hart wrote of Seth Raynor’s final course, titling it “His Final Masterpiece.” Charles Banks described the course to Hart, saying, “The course is so laid out that while it will try the prowess of the skilled player, it will also be a delight to the average player, because there is no place where the tee shot is too difficult for anyone familiar with the grand old game.”
Lookout Mountain’s golf professional, Adam Campbell, agrees, saying, “In July 2020, our course was also ranked by Golfweek at No. 142 of the top 200 Classic Courses in the country.” Campbell explains that a “classic course” designation requires a course to have been built before 1960. According to Campbell, “Our course is the only Seth Raynor course built on a mountain.” Seth Raynor has more courses in the top 15 in the world than any other golf course architect. Of the “classic” courses in the United States, Campbell adds, “We are always ranked in the top 200 of thousands of courses, and it’s really nice to recognized in that number.” Adam Campbell and Miles Stephens, assistant to Campbell, said they constantly get calls from all over North America from golfers wanting to come play the Lookout Mountain Club course. “We get calls from Boston, Chicago, California, Canada and more.” Only 35 Seth Raynor courses are still in existence today, with the closest being two in Charleston and two in Florida.
King Oehmig wrote wonderful articles about the history of the Lookout Mountain course. In speaking with Garnet Carter, Oehmig recounted that Seth Raynor was not sold on the initial site chosen for the course. Raynor said, “I can turn this into another golf course, but not one of the three or four outstanding courses of America. Let me look around.” Oehmig wrote that Raynor “roamed the mountain alone. He explored everywhere. One day, he wandered into ‘Indian Village.’ This rock formation fascinated him, and the view from the brow thrilled him. Sauntering on, he stepped into a clearing - and stopped with a gasp of satisfaction.” Raynor saw a “broad expanse of plateau, partly enclosed by rugged cliffs -nature’s handiwork of 1,000,000 years of upheaving and leveling by earthquake and glacial flow.” Seth Raynor found his location exhilarating and told Mr. Carter, “This course can be one of the finest in the entire country.”
Some of the comments from GOLF Magazine’s current raters hold true for this beloved course. John Dempsey of Pinehurst has two trustworthy rules of thumb when it comes to assessing a world class track. The first he lists is “the quality of the architecture … when I walk up to the ball and there are five different ways I can hit the shot. That’s when you know you’re playing somewhere special.” The second is when you walk off 18 and ask, ‘Can I do that again?’”
Another one of GOLF Magazine’s course raters is Brooke Mackenzie, who grew up skiing and later developed the ski apparel company Kjus. When this company moved into golf apparel, she decided to try the game herself. On the course, as on the slopes, Mackenzie was struck by the beauty of the landscape, and the artful obstacles it threw in her path.”She recognized what she described as a “kinship between a round of golf and a downhill run: Each is meant to take you on a journey.”
In an analysis by Shot Scope, a golf supply company, golf has seen a spike of 40 percent during the pandemic since lockdowns began in March. Golf helps reduce stress and provides fitness as an outdoor activity while so many other things are unavailable. Golf is also enjoyed across generations. At the Lookout Mountain Club, you can find grandfathers and grandmothers with granddaughters and grandsons, fathers-in-law teaching new sons-in-law, and many more groups of people playing together. The views are magnificent, and the course is challenging every time it is played. Our Golden Age, classic course is a true mountain treasure.
How GOLF Magazine Ranks
America’s Best Golf Courses:
“For the newly released 2020-21 U.S. list, each panelist was provided a list of 489 courses. Beside that list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the country, they ticked that box. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10 in the U.S., they checked that box, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on.
“Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot (we had fewer than a handful of such additions in the U.S. vote).
“Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it invariably produces results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate things.”
by Greyson Brown
Seth Raynor designed the Lookout Mountain Club golf course in 1925, along with Charles Banks. This course was Raynor’s final accomplishment. While in Florida, opening his Everglades Course in 1926, he suffered a sudden death at only 47 years old. The New York Post’s obituary wrote of Raynor, “Probably no other man has accomplished so much in the building of golf courses throughout the United States as has Seth Raynor … the most famous courses in the country bear the touch of his unusual skill … the golf world will miss its greatest designing genius.” Charles Banks, who had partnered with Raynor in the design and building plans, completed the course in early summer of 1927. In Golfer’s Magazine in 1927, Eric Hart wrote of Seth Raynor’s final course, titling it “His Final Masterpiece.” Charles Banks described the course to Hart, saying, “The course is so laid out that while it will try the prowess of the skilled player, it will also be a delight to the average player, because there is no place where the tee shot is too difficult for anyone familiar with the grand old game.”
Lookout Mountain’s golf professional, Adam Campbell, agrees, saying, “In July 2020, our course was also ranked by Golfweek at No. 142 of the top 200 Classic Courses in the country.” Campbell explains that a “classic course” designation requires a course to have been built before 1960. According to Campbell, “Our course is the only Seth Raynor course built on a mountain.” Seth Raynor has more courses in the top 15 in the world than any other golf course architect. Of the “classic” courses in the United States, Campbell adds, “We are always ranked in the top 200 of thousands of courses, and it’s really nice to recognized in that number.” Adam Campbell and Miles Stephens, assistant to Campbell, said they constantly get calls from all over North America from golfers wanting to come play the Lookout Mountain Club course. “We get calls from Boston, Chicago, California, Canada and more.” Only 35 Seth Raynor courses are still in existence today, with the closest being two in Charleston and two in Florida.
King Oehmig wrote wonderful articles about the history of the Lookout Mountain course. In speaking with Garnet Carter, Oehmig recounted that Seth Raynor was not sold on the initial site chosen for the course. Raynor said, “I can turn this into another golf course, but not one of the three or four outstanding courses of America. Let me look around.” Oehmig wrote that Raynor “roamed the mountain alone. He explored everywhere. One day, he wandered into ‘Indian Village.’ This rock formation fascinated him, and the view from the brow thrilled him. Sauntering on, he stepped into a clearing - and stopped with a gasp of satisfaction.” Raynor saw a “broad expanse of plateau, partly enclosed by rugged cliffs -nature’s handiwork of 1,000,000 years of upheaving and leveling by earthquake and glacial flow.” Seth Raynor found his location exhilarating and told Mr. Carter, “This course can be one of the finest in the entire country.”
Some of the comments from GOLF Magazine’s current raters hold true for this beloved course. John Dempsey of Pinehurst has two trustworthy rules of thumb when it comes to assessing a world class track. The first he lists is “the quality of the architecture … when I walk up to the ball and there are five different ways I can hit the shot. That’s when you know you’re playing somewhere special.” The second is when you walk off 18 and ask, ‘Can I do that again?’”
Another one of GOLF Magazine’s course raters is Brooke Mackenzie, who grew up skiing and later developed the ski apparel company Kjus. When this company moved into golf apparel, she decided to try the game herself. On the course, as on the slopes, Mackenzie was struck by the beauty of the landscape, and the artful obstacles it threw in her path.”She recognized what she described as a “kinship between a round of golf and a downhill run: Each is meant to take you on a journey.”
In an analysis by Shot Scope, a golf supply company, golf has seen a spike of 40 percent during the pandemic since lockdowns began in March. Golf helps reduce stress and provides fitness as an outdoor activity while so many other things are unavailable. Golf is also enjoyed across generations. At the Lookout Mountain Club, you can find grandfathers and grandmothers with granddaughters and grandsons, fathers-in-law teaching new sons-in-law, and many more groups of people playing together. The views are magnificent, and the course is challenging every time it is played. Our Golden Age, classic course is a true mountain treasure.
How GOLF Magazine Ranks
America’s Best Golf Courses:
“For the newly released 2020-21 U.S. list, each panelist was provided a list of 489 courses. Beside that list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the country, they ticked that box. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10 in the U.S., they checked that box, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on.
“Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot (we had fewer than a handful of such additions in the U.S. vote).
“Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it invariably produces results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate things.”
by Greyson Brown
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